caterpillar talk

project 365 a.k.a. the one a day challenge.

the concept is simple: remain faithful in doing a particular something on a daily basis for 365 consecutive days. hence, the name.

the theme of a project 365 is up to the person or persons involved. this could mean… one photograph a day, one poem a day, one date a day (whoa!), one text message to a particular person a day, one trip a day, one letter a day, one blog entry a day, one movie a day, one sketch a day, one book a day, one story a day, one chocolate a day, one quote a day… among others. at the end of 365 days, one should be able to look back to 365 photographs, 365 poems, 365 dates, 365 texts, 365 trips, 365 letters, 365 blog entries, 365 movies, 365 sketches, 365 books, 365 stories, 365 chocolates, 365 quotes… non-repeating.

my chosen theme for my own project 365 is new thing learned.

day 1. milking a cow is not as easy as it looks. it entails lots of meticulous preparations and quite understandably so if the end goal is to have dairy products of quality. i saw how it’s done. i saw it on tv. i think it’s challenging. i want to try it!

day 2. read thy lips. people with thin lips tend to be workaholics. i got this piece of information from the february 2007 issue of reader’s digest asia. hmmm… mirror, mirror on the wall, reveal the workaholics among us all.

day 3. guess who seemed to have misspelled their own name?

the valentine’s day banner: where’s the “l”?
(click on the image to see the close-up)

thank you to my geekette friend, ann, for giving me the heads up!

day 4. cesar montano is running for senator. i like cesar. i like his smile. i like his eyes. i like his life and his career. i like his star… BUT i don’t want to see it in the senate halls. there i’ve said it. i don’t have room for crush-factor bias.

day 5. feedback is a fascinating well-known eight-letter word. it does not only represent that essential element in all forms of effective communication. it also contains the first six letters of the alphabet.

project 365: the first five covers the period 02.13.07-02.17.07.

day 6. epiphany. i don’t know the difference between camaron rebosado and shrimp tempura. are they really different or are they the same? if you know, let me know. you see, i like ordering camaron rebosado along with lumpia shanghai everytime my family dines out. when the menu says shrimp tempura, i don’t seem interested so i look for something else.

day 7. there is a lengthy wikipedia entry on unrequited love. this is not surprising considering that wikipedia is wikipedia after all but i find this amusing. how did i find out? a lengthy conversation with an old-time pal got me thinking about valentine’s day gifts and their meanings. i did a quick search and one click led to another until i stumbled upon the wikipedia entry.

day 8. gom is the korean word for bear. i learned this along with some chinese and other korean words while watching full house. the things i get from k-series!

day 9. peace advocacy campaign version 2007. truckloads of people in full battle gear and with high-powered weapons passed through the city’s national highway yesterday. the said people are members of the moro islamic liberation front. philippine military escorts and the authorities explained the scenario as part of the peace advocacy campaign. talk about irony. whatever happened to kaleidoscope world’s “you can’t talk peace and have a gun”? no, no, don’t remind me of the gun ban.

day 10. facebox. another one of those social networking sites which i have to ignore. there’s friendster, multiply, yahoo! 360, myspace, hi5, tagged, eskwela, and the list goes on. i only have accounts for the first four sites mentioned. hassle enough. the invitations i received to join the rest, i decided to ignore. i have better use for my time.

project 365: the second five covers the period 02.18.07-02.22.07

day 11. barangay ginebra rules! the philippine cup of PBA was won by my team. ginebra beat san miguel after a 4-2 run during the best of 7 championship series. my allegiance to the team is influenced by my father and brother… and my youngest sister.

day 12. ‘gaydar‘ is a recognized word in the dictionary (webster’s). it was inducted to the roster of words ahead of ‘blog’ and ‘bling’.

day 13. hip hop moves. ’nuff said.

day 14. robbie williams and alanis morissette sang and danced in the movie, de-lovely (2004), a biographical musical. alanis performed ‘let’s do it, let’s fall in love‘ while robbie sang ‘it’s de-lovely.’ other musical performers for the movie were elvis costello, sheryl crow, diana krall, and natalie cole. de-lovely starred kevin kline as the composer, cole porter, and ashley judd as linda porter. jonathan pryce and peter polycarpou who both performed in miss saigon also had roles in the movie!

day 15. not a hoax. amazing moment caught on cam!

the picture is authentic. the tiny hand in the picture is that of then unborn child, samuel armas, who at mere 21 weeks gestational age was operated on inside his mother’s womb due to spina bifida. his hand flopped out of the womb just as dr. bruner, the doctor, was closing the incision. the doctor lifted the tiny hand gently and tucked it back in. what a moment! the operation happened on august 19, 1999. samuel was born healthy on december 2, 1999.

project 365: the third five covers the period 02.23.07-02.27.07.

day 16. unfinished business. a needlework i started in 2003 is still far from being done. a quick timeline check says it’s now 2007.

my poor bubbles. i swear you’ll be whole soon.

day 17. it’s confirmed. i am my cousin b-boy’s favorite reading partner. well, we don’t actually read. all we do is flip through pages of kiddie books and he asks his questions about the illustrations. he is only 1 year and 9 months old but he’s so charming and good at saying “ate inday, unsa ni?,” “ngano man?,” and, whenever he wants to move on to another activity, “ihipos na nato ni, tapos na basa si b-boy.“

day 18. cebu pacific’s one-peso airfare promo is back this year! they’re selling the one-peso tickets from the march 2 to march 8 only. the flight period covered is from june 1 to december 15, 2007. got a destination?

day 19. watching the binibinang pilipinas tv coverage made me realize that the hotel philippine plaza now carries the name sofitel philippine plaza. just last october i found out that the westin philippine plaza dropped westin from its name and put in its place the word hotel. little did i know then that it was to undergo another renaming… or re-branding. from westin to hotel to sofitel. by any other name, it’s that posh hotel you see in the manila bay area.

day 20. attitude makes a woman or a man perfect. my father said that to no one in particular today.

project 365: the fourth five covers the period 02.28.07-03.04.07.

day 21. eternal embrace. in weddings, couples vow to stay together ’til death make them part. this picture shows going the extra mile…

…even in death, two human beings from 6,000 years ago managed to stay together! their skeletal remains were found in mantua early this year.

day 22. fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth or arachibutyrophobia. you can call me ignorant but i only learned about this kind of fear today. what’s more, i was surprised to find out that it has a name.

day 23. i’m not as immature as i think myself to be.

day 24. low-latent inhibition. my attention was drawn to this personality trait while watching season 1 of prison break. apparently, michael scofield has it.

a person who has low-latent inhbition (LLI) has lowered ability to filter out excess information. this causes a constant stream of incoming stimuli to the brain which may or may not prove to be good for the person who has it. in scofield’s case, having the trait does him good because it makes him a genius.

a person with normal latent inhibition would look at a coin and recognize it as such and would only think of the most relevant information about it. a person with LLI would go further by noticing the details of the coin and by processing so much more other information like the minting, the material, the possible modifications, similar images, history, and so on. the barrage of information might drive a person crazy if he is not able to cope. it is hypothesized that people who possess a combo of above average intelligence and LLI have the tendency to effectively process and keep up with the constant stream of information and might as well be creative geniuses.

day 25. star wars origami sites. yes, you read that right. now, i might be able to make my own R2D2 just by folding paper.

project 365: the fifth five covers the period 03.05.07-03.09.07.

day 26. cool ambigram on a doormat. this…

day 27. it’s easier to make michael scofield’s crane than to make the paper crane i knew from kindergarten. prison break’s version of the crane is actually an origami of a duck, not a crane.

day 28. marlboro man tops USA Today’s list of 101 imaginary luminaries. he is the #1 most influential person who never lived.

day 29. the notstarring.com site features a list of the top 25 movie roles that some movie stars DIDN’T get.

day 30. i can’t find a ready-to-print chart of the unicorn cross stitch design i sooo wanted to finish. it’s not available online.

project 365: the sixth five covers the period 03.10.07-03.14.07.

day 31. i have to read neal stephenson’s snow crash. i’ve already read his cryptonomicon.

day 32. the starr in atlantic starr is spelled with double r. i thought it was ’star’.

day 33. ‘extra-virgin’ refers to the highest-quality grade of olive oil made from the first pressing of the olives and has nothing to do with “untouched” girls.

day 34. willow pattern - chinese inspired cross stitch design and the reliable tricks to follow when substituting colors

day 35. march is supposed to be fire prevention month but there are big fires happening in the country daily. i wonder what’s up with the fire prevention campaign.

project 365: the seventh five covers the period 03.15.07-03.19.07.

day 36. i choose buklod’s original version of tatsulok over bamboo’s version.

day 37. sugar-free mixers speed up the rush of alcohol into the bloodstream. i read that from somewhere.

day 38. the different types of hatching in drawing manga: nawa-ami (cord-hatching), ichikake (single hatching), nikake (crosshatching - double hatching), and sankake (crosshatching - triple hatching)

day 39. knitting is something i want to learn.

day 40. inhalant abusers used to be mostly “rugby boys” — those streetkids who inhale contact cement substance or glue to get some sense of high. what do you know? there are also “toluene boys” — those who abusively inhale the colorless and volatile substance used for removing rust. i guess they have nothing else better to do with their lives. very sad.

project 365: the eighth five covers the period 03.20.07-03.24.07.

day 41. one jimmy pham established cafe KOTO (know one, teach one) in june 1999 in hanoi to give street kids in vietnam a vocational option through the hospitality business. cafe KOTO provides training to street kids. though the program does not help every street kid, it does “help a precious few who in turn can help someone else.” that’s paying forward.

day 42. people with chronic daily headaches are nearly twice as likely to be snorers according to a study from the national institute of aging. - RD, july 2003

day 43.

so long as space remains,
so long as sentient beings’ suffering remain,
i will remain, in order to help, in order to serve.

day 44. mind that garnish! parsley contains vitamins A and C as well as calcium, iron, and folate.

day 45. popsci joke. “administratium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 111 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. these 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of peons.”

project 365: the ninth five covers the period 03.25.07-03.29.07.

day 46. time-saving inventions or whatever you call them. how lazy can you get with thumbthing and soy sauce-dispensing chopsticks? with thumbthing, a plastic contraption for the thumb, a voracious reader need not hold a book with both hands just to keep the pages of the book open. with soy sauce-dispensing chopsticks, tiresome and repetitive dipping of chopsticks into bowls of soy sauce or whatever sauce is not anymore a worry.

day 47. so it has a name? to search for your own name using a search engine is, in netlingo, ego-surfing.

day 48. the word ‘mnemonics’ is rooted in greek mythology. mnemosyne was the goddess of memory.

day 49. reel stinker. the movie into the blue starring jessica alba (among others) got a review as bad as this: “not a thriller so much as an extremely violent swimsuit calendar.” no wonder, i was never moved to watch it when i could have.

day 50.

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.” — Isaac Asimov

project 365: the tenth five covers the period 03.30.07-04.04.07.

day 51. “texting” used to be not a word. on june 15, 2006, texting officially entered the oxford english dictionary. (04.05.07)

day 52. it is indeed possible! my mama and her ex-boyfriend whom she haven’t seen for 33 years saw each other again. they talked like good old friends and introduced their respective families to each other. it wasn’t planned. it just happened. (04.08.07)

day 53. according to abs-cbn’s princess hours special, the budget for every goong (a.k.a. princess hours) episode is about PhP11M. whoa! (04.11.07)

day 54. ROLEX12 is the name of ferdinand marcos’ powerful set of advisers during the martial law years in the philippines. (04.17.07)

day 55. i read in wikipedia that jodie foster is a mensa member with an IQ of 140. (04.18.07)

day 56. i find this text very amusing: “be kind to those smoke, every cigarette might be there last.” (04.20.07)

day 57. witholding tax computation nuances: salary brackets, base amounts, additional rates, deductions, etc. at least i now know how money is legally “robbed” from me, hehe. (10.24.07)